Is Magnant a derived work ?

[Francois Beerten]

Hello,

A game called Magnant uses a GPL'd engine called Stratagus. The 
Stratagus engine is an executable which runs some scripts (also called 
ccl). The scripts used by the Magnant game are GPL'd too. Those scripts 
are tailored to the graphics and some other media of Magnant. The 
scripts are pretty useless without graphics.

The stratagus executable is called via other "helper executables" which 
add a trading card feature to the game. The "helper executables" are 
useless without the Stratagus executable. I haven't been able to look at 
what exactly they do as they crash on startup.

Now the graphics and the "helper executables" are licensed under the 
Magnant License. The Magnant License is GPL incompatible. A file in the 
Magnant package called Licenses.txt lists most licenses used in the 
package. You can read it in Addendum A. The licenses can only be read 
after an installation and are burried in the ZIP file 'C:\Program 
Files\Magnant\data.magnant\doc\licenses.zip' except 'Licenses.txt' and 
'Magnant License.txt' which are also available in 'C:\Program 
Files\Magnant\data.magnant'.

In private discussions,the author and distributor of Magnant said that 
Magnant is "a mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program".

The statement from the GPL "But when you distribute the same sections as 
part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution 
of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for 
other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every 
part regardless of who wrote it." seems to better apply here.

You can find the files for Magnant package at:
 http://d.trymedia.com/d/mohydine/1h_pkg542/mohydine/MagnantSetup.exe
The Magnant website is:
 http://insectwar.free.fr
The Stratagus website:
 http://www.stratagus.org
The Magnant game is sold on many website like trygames.com. Those sites 
offer free demos (as in free beer).

Now is Magnant a derived work ?  Does it violate the GPL ?

Thanks for your answers,

Francois Beerten,
A stratagus dev.

----------------------------------------------
Addendum A: Licenses.txt

DISCLAIMER. THE SOFTWARE CONTAINED IN THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' 
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND THE 
PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY THE USER, AND IN NO EVENT WILL 
Mohydine Entertainment Inc OR ANY OF THIS SOFTWARE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR 
ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR DIRECT DAMAGES SUFFERED IN THE COURSE 
OF USING THIS SOFTWARE. USE OF THE PROGRAMS, GRAPHICS, SOUNDS AND OTHER 
RELATED FILES CONTAINED IN THIS GAME ARE GOVERNED BY THEIR RESPECTIVE 
LICENSE AGREEMENTS AND CONTAIN RESTRICTIONS ON USE. PLEASE READ BELOW 
FOR MORE DETAILS.


This game is a combination of several software components that may have 
different licenses. please refer to the "doc" folder for more details.

Graphics, UI, Gameplay, Storyline:
Property: Stephane Intissar. This content is subject to the license 
described in "Magnant license.txt"

Music(default.wav)
Author: Abdel Kander. This music is distributed as a shareware. It is 
meant to be used only in conjunction with the present game. It cannot be
modified or distributed outside the context of this game without prior 
author consent. Please contact him on (abdel at kander.com) for more 
information.

Magnant.exe and InsectwarUpdate.exe(if included in this package):
Author:Stephane Intissar This content is subject to the license 
described in "Magnant license.txt"

Sounds(voices and SFX):
These sounds are distributed as freeware. They can be distributed feely 
as long as their copyright notice is kept intact.

Stratagus engine(engine.exe CCLs and srcs): Set of components released 
under the terms of the GNU. see folder :"doc" for more information about 
this set of components.

Fo Other components, please see the "doc" folder.